Stinky nasty smelly breath and teeth. Oh and the cancers. And what KS said about seeing your grandchildren. Oh and the money saved. And not subjecting your family/pets to second hand smoke. And kissing.

You can quit by simply throwing away today all the cigarettes you have and gutting it out for the first 5-7 days... thousands and thousands of us who had packs-a-day habits have done just that, no patches, no drugs, no rehab BS, just do it... after that first week you will notice items 2-4 (and maybe 5) in all your friends who smoke....

Well, tomorrow I am going to make my 4th or 5th attempt at quitting. I've been on Chantix for several days in preparation. Why? To improve my health, physiclly and monitarily. I'm sick and tired of being sick as much as I am. Also, I am sure I can spend that nearly $100 a month on something else.

It IS a habit. It may be a chemical additiction but it IS also a habit. I know. I was a habitual smoker. I associated smoking with talking on the phone, riding in the car, after dinner and after... yes. But, once I got a few weeks behind me I got real stubborn and I used the patch!

Yeah, I have given all those reasons to my husband, and he has quit several times (for a few months) in the past 20 years, but nothing has stuck. Nothing has worked, but I am still trying. I almost wish we lived somewhere really cold, because going outside to smoke would be really harsh.

There's only one reason to quit smoking: because you want to for your own reasons. Quitting because you feel pressured, or because society treats you like a pariah, is a lot less likely to bring a successful result than quitting because you believe it's a good idea and you really want to not be a smoker any more.

A friend of mine decided to quit smoking this spring. She's quit several times and always went back because she got stressed, but this time she just up and said, "Yeah, no, done now. I just don't want to be that person any more." She went on Chantix for three weeks, toughing it out through the really weird dream side effects (no, really weird. Weird enough that she ultimately stopped taking it because the dreams were freaking her out) until she thought she could do it with behaviour control. She stopped going all the places, like bars and coffeehouses, where she used to smoke. When she was in the group, we ate at inside tables for a couple months because Austin only allows smoking outside in restaurants. She stopped her morning 'book and coffee' for three months because it was 'book and coffee and cig' before she started her day.

Since then, she's faced just about every stressful situation I can imagine. Work stress, going back to school stress, relationship stress, roommate stress, family stress, and organizational politics. But she hasn't started smoking again. I'm really proud of her, less because I'm glad she's not smoking (it used to be annoying to hang out with her, because she'd step outside mid-conversation for a smoke, and everyone else had to either continue the discussion without her, wait for her to get back, or follow her out) and more because she's really happy to have set and met a series of goals she really wanted.

But none of the community support, Chantix, or behavioural changes would have been nearly as effective if they hadn't all been backed by her fervent desire, not just to quit smoking, but to not be a smoker any more, to completely erase all the habits and tendencies that went with being a smoker.

Smokers never have any idea how they smell to others.....until they quit, then they can't believe they let themselves go around smelling that way.
I feel sorry for smokers who want to quit but have such a hard time. It's very addictive, and it's sad that a chemical has so much control over a human being. It shouldn't be that way. Anyone who wants to quit, more power to ya! :)